Muscogee (Creek) Nation

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Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Delegates from 34 tribes in front of Creek Council House, Indian Territory, 1880 - NARA - 519141.jpg
Intertribal delegates at the Creek Council House, 1849
Total population
69,162[1]
Regions with significant populations
 United States ( Oklahoma)
Languages
English, Muscogee
Religion
Christianity (Baptist, Methodist),[2]
Four Mothers Society, Green Corn Ceremony (Posketv)
Related ethnic groups
other Muscogee people, Alabama, Hitchiti, Koasati, Natchez Nation, Shawnee, Seminole, and Yuchi

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Muscogee people, also known as the Creek, based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Calling themselves Este Mvskokvlke[needs IPA], they are regarded as one of the historical Five Civilized Tribes of the American Southeast.[2] The tribe is descended from the historic Creek Confederacy, a large, heterogeneous group of indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands.

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is the largest of the federally recognized Muscogee tribes. The Muskogean-speaking Alabama, Hitchiti, and Natchez people, as well as Algonquian-speaking Shawnee[3] and Yuchi (language isolate) are enrolled in the Muscogee Creek Nation. Historically the latter two groups were from different language families than the Muscogee.

Other federally recognized Muscogee groups include the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town, Kialegee Tribal Town, and Thlopthlocco Tribal Town of Oklahoma, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, and the Poarch Band of Creeks in Alabama.

Jurisdiction

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is headquartered in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Oklahoma Indian tribes do not have reservations (with two exceptions); they have Tribal Jurisdictional Areas. The Muscogee Nation has jurisdiction over tribal members in Creek, Hughes, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, McIntosh, Muskogee, Tulsa, and Wagoner counties in Oklahoma.[1]

Government

Pleasant Porter, Principle Chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation From 1899 to 1907

The government of the Muscogee Creek Nation is divided into executive, legislative, and judicial branches.[4]

The executive branch is led by a Principal Chief, Second Chief, Tribal Administrator, and Secretary of the Nation. The Principal Chief and Second Chief are democratically elected every four years. The Principal Chief then chooses staff. The current members of the executive branch are as follows:

  • James Floyd, Principal Chief
  • Louis Hicks, Second Chief
  • Judy Haumpy, Tribal Administrator

[5]

Legislative branch

The legislative branch is the National Council, made up of 18 members elected to represent different districts within the tribal jurisdictional area. They write the laws of the Nation.[4]

Judicial branch

The Nation has two courts: the Muscogee (Creek) Nation District Court and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has final authority over disputes about the Muscogee Creek Constitution and Laws. The current members of the Supreme Court are as follows:

  • Chief Justice Kathleen Supernaw
  • Vice-Chief Justice Montie Deer
  • Associate Justice Jonodev Chaudhuri
  • Associate Justice Leah Harjo-Ware
  • Associate Justice Andrew Adams III
  • Associate Justice Richard Lerblance[4]

Legislative branch

The legislative branch is the National Council, made up of 18 members elected to represent different districts within the tribal jurisdictional area. They write the laws of the Nation.[4]

Judicial branch

The Nation has two courts: the Muscogee (Creek) Nation District Court and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has final authority over disputes about the Muscogee Creek Constitution and Laws. The current members of the Supreme Court are as follows:

  • Chief Justice Kathleen Supernaw
  • Vice-Chief Justice Montie Deer
  • Associate Justice Jonodev Chaudhuri
  • Associate Justice Leah Harjo-Ware
  • Associate Justice Andrew Adams III
  • Associate Justice Richard Lerblance[4]

Enrollment

In 2013, there were 77,061 people enrolled in the Muscogee Creek Nation. Of these, 55,591 lived within the state of Oklahoma. Since 1979, membership to the tribe is based on documented lineal descent from persons listed as Creek 'Indians by Blood' on the Dawes Rolls.[6] The tribe does not have a minimum blood quantum requirement.

Services

Spc. Stacy R. Mull, an enrolled Creek from Okemah, makes frybread at a powwow at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq, 2004.

The Nation operates its own division of housing and issues vehicle license plates.[1] Their Division of Health contracts with Indian Health Services to maintain the Creek Nation Community Hospital and several community clinics, a vocational rehabilitation program, nutrition programs for children and the elderly, and programs dedicated to diabetes, tobacco prevention, and caregivers.[7]

The Muscogee Nation operates the Lighthorse Tribal Police Department, with 43 active employees.[8] The tribe has its own program for enforcing child support payments.

The Mvskoke Food Sovereignty Initiative is sponsored by the nation. It educates and encourages tribal members to grow their own traditional foods for health, environmental sustainability, economic development, and sharing of knowledge and community between generations.[9]

The Muscogee Nation also operates a Communications Department that produces a bi-monthly newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News, and a weekly television show, the Native News Today.

Economic development

Creek Nation Tribal Trade and Commerce and Creek Nation Business Enterprise oversee economic development projects for the tribe.[1] The tribal government operates a budget in excess of $106 million; has over 2,400 employees; and maintains tribal facilities and programs in eight administrative districts.[10] The nation operates several significant tribal enterprises, including the Muscogee Document Imaging Company; travel plazas in Okmulgee, Muskogee and Cromwell, Oklahoma; construction, technology and staffing services; and, since the late 20th century, major gaming casinos in Tulsa and Okmulgee. The gaming casinos have generated the most revenue for economic development, which the tribe has reinvested to develop new businesses, as well as support the welfare of the tribe.

The Creek Nation operates two truck stops, 30 tribal smokeshops, two bingo halls, and eleven casinos.[1] Gaming establishments owned by the tribe include Bristow Indian Bingo in Bristow; Checotah Indian Community Bingo in Checotah; Creek Nation Casino Duck Creek and Duck Creek Casino in Beggs; Creek Nation Casino Muskogee; Creek Nation Casino Okemah; Creek Nation Casino Okmulgee; Creek Nation Travel Plaza in Okmulgee, Eufaula Indian Community Bingo in Eufaula; and River Spirit Casino in Tulsa.[11]

Civic institutions

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Further information: Creek National Capitol

The Nation's historic old Council House (also known as the Creek National Capitol) was built in 1878 and located in downtown Okmulgee. It was completely restored in the 1990s. It now serves as a museum of tribal history.[12][13]

Tribal college

In 2004, the Muscogee Nation founded a tribal college in Okmulgee, the College of the Muscogee Nation. CMN is a two-year institution, offering associate degrees in Tribal Services, Police Science, Gaming, and Native American Studies. They offer Mvskoke language classes as well. In 2007, 137 students enrolled and the college has plans for expansion.[14]

History

The Nation includes the Creek people and descendants of their African-descended slaves[15] who were forced by the US government to relocate from their ancestral homes in the Southeast to Indian Territory in the 1830s. They signed another treaty with the federal government in 1856.[16]

During the American Civil War, the tribe split into two factions, one allied with the Confederacy and the other, under Opothleyohola, who allied with the Union.[17] There were conflicts between pro-Confederate and pro-Union forces in the Indian Territory during the war. The pro-Confederate forces pursued the loyalists who were leaving to take refuge in Kansas. They fought at the Battle of Round Mountain, Battle of Chusto-Talasah, and Battle of Chustenahlah, resulting in 2,000 deaths among the 9,000 loyalists who were leaving.[18]

After defeating the Confederacy, the United States required new peace treaties with the Five Civilized Tribes. The Treaty of 1866 required the Creek to abolish slavery within their territory and to grant tribal citizenship to the Creek Freedmen who chose to stay in the territory; this citizenship included voting rights and shares of annuities and land allotments.[19] If the Creek Freedmen moved out to United States territory, they would be granted United States citizenship, as were other emancipated slaves.[20]

The Creek established a new government in 1866 and selected a new capital of Okmulgee. In 1867 they ratified a new constitution.[2] They built their capitol in 1867 and enlarged it in 1878. Today the Creek National Capitol is a National Historic Landmark and houses the Creek Council House Museum. The Nation built schools, churches, and public houses during the prosperous final decades of the 19th century, when the tribe had autonomy and minimal interference from the federal government.[2]

At the turn of the century, Congress passed the 1898 Curtis Act, which dismantled tribal governments in another attempt at assimilation; and the Dawes Allotment Act, which broke up tribal landholdings to allot communal land to individual households to encourage adoption of the European-American style of subsistence farming and property ownership. In the hasty process of registration, the Dawes Commission registered tribal members in three categories, distinguishing between "Creek by Blood," "Creek Freedmen," into which category they put anyone with visible African ancestry, regardless of their proportion of Creek ancestry; and "Intermarried Whites." They classified some members of the same families into different groups. The 1906 Five Civilized Tribes Act (April 26, 1906) was passed by the US Congress in anticipation of approving statehood for Oklahoma in 1907. During this time, the Creek had lost more than 2 million acres (8,100 km2) to non-Native settlers and the US government.

Later, when Creek communities organized and set up governments under the 1936 Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, some former Muscogee tribal towns gained federal recognition.

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation did not reorganize and regain federal recognition until 1970. In 1979 the tribe ratified a new constitution that replaced the 1866 constitution.[2] The pivotal 1976 court case Harjo v. Kleppe helped end US federal paternalism. It ushered in an era of growing self-determination. Using the Dawes Rolls as a basis for determining membership of descendants, the Nation enrolled over 58,000 allottees and their descendants.

Creek Freedmen controversy

From 1981-2001, the Creek had membership rules that allowed applicants to use a variety of documentary sources to establish qualifications for membership.

In 1979 the Muscogee Nation Constitutional Convention voted to limit citizenship in the Nation to persons who could prove descent by blood, meaning that members had to be able to document direct descent from an ancestor listed on the Dawes Commission roll in the category of "Creek by Blood". Persons proving they are descended from persons listed as Creek by blood can become citizens of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The 1893 registry was established to identify citizens of the nation at the time of allotment of communal lands and dissolution of the reservation system and tribal government.[21]

The 1979 vote on citizenship excluded descendants of persons recorded only as Creek Freedmen in the Dawes Rolls. This decision has been challenged in court by those descendants, according to the 1866 treaty.[22] of "Creek Freedmen,"[23][24]

The Freedmen were listed on the Dawes Rolls. Some descendants can prove by documentation in other registers that they had ancestors with Creek blood. The Freedmen had been listed on a separate register, regardless of their proportion of Creek ancestry. This classification did not acknowledge the unions and intermarriage that had taken place for years between the ethnic groups for years. Prior to the change in code, Creek Freedmen could use existing registers and the preponderance of evidence to establish qualification for citizenship, and were to be aided by the Citizenship Board. The Creek Freedmen have challenged their exclusion from citizenship in legal actions[25][26] which are pending.[27]

Notable Muscogee Nation people

Suzan Shown Harjo, Muscogee-Cheyenne policymaker, activist, and poet

See also

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Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory. Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission. 2011: 23. Retrieved 5 Jan 2012. (archived)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Theodore Isham and Blue Clark. "Creek (Mvskoke)", Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Accessed Dec. 22, 2009
  3. ↑ Innes, 393
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "MCN Governmental Branches." Muscogee (Creek) Nation. 2008 (retrieved 22 Dec 2009)
  5. ↑ http://www.muscogeenation-nsn.gov
  6. ↑ "Muscogee Nation"
  7. ↑ "Division of Health", Muscogee (Creek) Nation. (retrieved 28 Dec 2009)
  8. ↑ "Lighthorse Tribal Police." Muscogee (Creek) Nation. (retrieved 28 Dec 2009)
  9. ↑ "About MFSI." Mvskoke Food Sovereignty Initiative. (retrieved 28 Dec 2009)
  10. ↑ "Office of the Administration." Muscogee (Creek) Nation. 2008 (retrieved 27 July 2011)
  11. ↑ "Oklahoma Indian Casinos." 500 Nations. (retrieved 22 Dec 2009)
  12. ↑ "Creek Council House Museum." Attractions in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. (retrieved 22 Dec 2009)
  13. ↑ Clifton Adcock, "Creeks ask to buy Council House: The U.S. sold it out from under them to the city of Okmulgee in 1919. It's now a museum.", Tulsa World, March 18, 2010.
  14. ↑ College of the Muscogee Nation Frequently Asked Questions. (retrieved 22 Dec 2009)
  15. ↑ Congressional Edition - United States. Congress - 1888 Exhibit E. State of Indian Territory, County of Creek Nation : Before me, ... Sarah Davis (her x mark).
  16. ↑ "The Fourteenth Creek Treaty", concluded at Washington, D. C., on the 7th of August, 1856, was one of the most important in the history of the Creek. The names of the Creek delegates who signed it: Tuckabatchee Minco, Echo Harjo, Chilly McIntosh and Daniel N. McIntosh (sons of chief William McIntosh, who was executed in 1825 for signing the Treaty of Indian Springs), Benjamin Marshall, and George W. Stidham familiar to those now living. Their children are among the leaders of the present generation of Creeks. This treaty is an attempted summary of all former treaties, canceling many old provisions which seemed to have outlived their usefulness and adjusting many disputes which had arisen during the preceding decade. Chronicles of Oklahoma
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Creek Indians in the American Civil War
  19. ↑ 1870 Loyal Creek abstract - Creek Treaty - Article IV provides how the losses of the loyal Creeks are to be ascertained ... and a roll of the names of all soldiers that enlisted in the Federal army, loyal refugee Indians ...
  20. ↑ Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and American Indians: The Amendment was intended to give citizenship to African-American former slaves and not to Indians, who were considered to have independent sovereignty and citizenship within the territories of their reservations. Government agencies (the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior), and the courts (state, federal, and, ultimately, the Supreme Court) consistently held that the Fourteenth Amendment did not confer citizenship on Indians. Under the Constitution, and the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution, Indian tribes were classified as "domestic dependent nations," and therefore, Indians were tribal citizens, not United States citizens.
  21. ↑ Sessional indexes to the Annals of Congress: Register of Debates in Congress ... By United States Historical Documents: 1914 Reference, Creek Nation: to Investigate relative to duplicate and fraudulent enrollments in (see Ы. J. Res. 3SS>. 329.b
  22. ↑ McKay v Cambell The negro and his descendants never had been considered a part of the free inhabitants ... McKay v. Campbell. 2 7 was another case in which an opinion was given on the clause in ... II. Status and Disabilities - INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND .Doe v. Avaline, 8 Ind., 6. The term "mestizo" signifies the issue of a negro and an Indian. Miller v. Dawson .... Osborn, 2 Fed., 58; 6 Sawy., 406; McKay v. Campbell, 16 Fed. Cas., No. 8840 ...
  23. ↑ United States Courts of Appeals reports: Cases adjudged ..Circuit Courts of Appeals, Samuel Appleton Blatchford - 1895 - Law reports, digests, etc Cases adjudged in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. v. ... J. P. Davison, one of Julia's children, was appointed administrator of her ... Caldwell, Circuit Judge, after stating the DAVISON v. GIBSON. 363.
  24. ↑ DAVISON V. WALKER.. of J. P. Davison, guardian of Sally McIntosh v. said Walker, involving the N. Q ...
  25. ↑ IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE MUSCOGEE (CREEK) NATION. FILED. Ron Graham,. OKMULGEE DISTRICT. Plaintiff,. ) v. 1. ) Muscogee (Creek) Nation. ) Citizenship Board,. ) ) Defendant. ) and. Fred Johnson, ...
  26. ↑ Muscogee Creek Nation Official Tribal Website: Freedmen descendants want their own tribe
  27. ↑ MASON et al v. SALAZAR et al :: Justia Dockets & Filings Apr 27, 2012 – ... al v. SALAZAR et al - Justia Federal Dockets and Filings. ... KELVIN MASON, JAMES MASON, NATALEE MILLER and GRANT PERRYMAN ...
  28. ↑ La Bella, Laura. Carrie Underwood., New York: Rosen Publishing, 2008: 15. ISBN 978-1-4042-1370-8. (retrieved through Google Books, 5.April.2009)
  29. ↑ "Creek Nation Tribal Member Carrie Underwood Wins Grammy", Free Press. 14.Feb.2007 (retrieved 5.April.2009)

References

External links

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